PICK OF THE WEEK:COMICS for 12/24/08

PICK OF THE WEEK

• I missed this book. Now it wasn’t actually gone, but it’s not been itself for most of the year. New Avengers is my favorite team in the Marvel Universe and it’s been a book I’ve been dreading reading with all the flashbacks to shine new light on the Secret Invasion. With that “run in the park” out of the way we can get back to what makes this team great, dynamic. This book, or issue in particular out shined the other books on a rather weak week. The ending, which I won’t spoil here, actually got a reaction out of me. I haven’t had a reaction to a Marvel Comics issue since Cap died, essentially I’ve been on auto pilot until we got away from all these big crossover events. We’re still in the middle of one, but this actually feels like a change and not just a 8 issue headache.

PICK OF THE WEEK RUNNER UP

• I’ve always loved Daredevil, even after the Affleck movie. Marvel Comics tries to portray Spider-Man as the saddest sack in Marvel, but it’s always been Daredevil. The guy can’t catch a break. It seemed he couldn’t catch a break from his own writer, Ed Brubaker, either… until the beginning of the LADY BULLSEYE storyline. A storyline who’s initial idea, Marvel’s current womanizing of their villains, I coulda cared less about. Throw in some Iron Fist, old asian master, The Hand, and some Black Tarantula and I’m down. This issue deals with the fallout of Matt’s insane wife being taken away from him, thank god. It almost seems like that plot point happened because people were droning on and on about how much she sucked and dragged down the book. With her gone it felt like a heavy downpour had lifted, although this book is still the heaviest book Marvel puts out that isn’t an ICON book or written by Warren Ellis.

THE REST OF THE PILE

• Um, okay. RIP fits into Final Crisis, but I still don’t really know what the hell is going on. The whole thing with Bats being inside of some clayface looking guy who’s transfering Batman’s “data” to drones was really weird. I usually really like Grant Morrison for his high concept books, but this is getting harder and harder to swallow. Here’s hoping the rest of Final Crisis will make total sense and not be a oddly crafted jumble. At least it’s more enjoyable than Secret Invasion was, to me.

• This is the 2nd time they’ve ended the Wally West as Flash book. Although the last time it ended that issue was bad, this ending issue is worse. What have they done to you Wally? You were the Flash I grew up with, your my guy but they’ve made you suck for a long time now. When Wally’s Flash numbering came back I was excited because it was going to be awesome, but then the issues came out. Since Johns left the Flash books have been dead in the water. I’m really excited for FLASH: REBIRTH but I hate that it seems to be at the expense of Wally West.

• This issue was a bit of a let down after the end of the last issue. Nova spends the entire issue talking to Justice and Firestar. Now don’t get me wrong I freaking went crazy for the New Warriors back in the day. I still miss the old book to this day. I’ve read alot of those books, when Scarlett Spider joined(a personal favorite of my youth) and all the random failed reboots. I couldn’t have been happier when Firestar and Justice fulfilled their destiny and became AVENGERS but then they kinda fell off the map. Justice went over to the Iniative until he found out they were doing shady stuff with clones and Firestar gave up the hero life. I love those characters but that makes for a pretty boring issue where Nova just tells his friends about all the cool stuff he’s done when they’ve done pretty much nothing. One sided group interaction doesn’t make for thrilling reading. Still love this series and can’t wait until they start killing these Nova Corps off in the next big space story.

• Four dollars for about 8 pages of new material? No bueno. I laughed because I own one of the issues they include in this. Just not cool, th0se new pages coulda taken the spot of that good awful looking War Machine section in the DARK REIGN promo book that came out awhile back. Lame Marvel, real lame.

• And with this book I’m done with the Ultimate Universe. While reading this wasn’t as painful as reading Loeb’s last ULTIMATES story, it just reminded me that I could give a crap about the Ultimate Universe. I have every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, a ton of Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men. I just can’t say that I cared about those books in a very long time. I also don’t enjoy David Finch’s art at all. A while back I thought I did, but reading this showed me I don’t. His detailed but messy style is kinda off putting. The book is keeping with the anything can happen motto, but I don’t care. You just finished dragging me along with Secret Invasion in the proper Marvel Universe, so why would I care what your doing in a universe that at the end of the day doesn’t matter.

• I was along for the ride up until the end of this issue. I laughed a couple times, but that ending just took me out of the story completely.

• I liked the way this mini began, but this issue kinda dragged. While I love the current art in SUPERGIRL, I wish Phil Noto was drawing the book. His Superman isn’t my favorite, but his Supergirl is great. I remember a time when the Female Furies would show up in Soverign Seven or Superboy and I’d be excited, now I don’t care.

• Last story arc really got me into Wolverine Origins, but with this branching story arc I’m off. I laughed at the end of the issue because it felt like I was watching a episode from this season of Heroes. Just so you know, that’s not good. Daken is this books Sylar, I freaking hate him so much.

Heroes season 3-Volume one:Villains wrap up review*SPOILERS*

HEROES SEASON 3-VOLUME 1:VILLAINS

Back in October I reviewed the first seven episodes of Season 3- Volume 1: Villains and didn’t really care for it. Volume 1 ended a couple weeks back and I wanted to let it breathe in my mind before I reviewed it. Well with the time passing, and honestly not much else to review, I’ve decided to finish up my Volume 1 review. Villains fell flat for me on a bunch of occasions, be it Nathan switching sides like they were pants or the totally pointless venture in trying to make the audience “root” for Sylar because of a new direction. While I enjoyed a few sparse scenes and character moments, overall it was a pointless filler volume. Outside of Hiro’s story the other stories didn’t really matter at the end because everything was pretty much taken back to where we’ve been before. Sylar is “dead”, Claire loves her dad again, Peter and Nathan are doing some kind of stupid dance that only they seem to be interested in, Mr.Petrelli is “dead again”, Hiro’s still squinting and nerdy.  That being said there were a few changes, Hiro’s sidekick gets his own “power amping” power, and a few of the no name powered cronies bit the dust. I kept wondering why Peter didn’t just say, “Dude I went to the future and you jacked up everything, Nathan. So stop being a idiot and stop thinking you know what’s best for everyone and actually think out your plans.” I mean Nathan is supposed to be this pretty smart guy, but he is by far the dumbest person on the show. None of his ideas seem like good ones to anybody that actually thinks about it. The next volume seems to be lifted straight out of an X-MEN comic. Nathan rats out all the powered people to the government, but seems to exclude himself in the upcoming witchhunt. This has, more or less, already been beaten into the ground in Marvel Comics. I don’t care about them rounding up the powered people because, surprise surprise, they’re going to win out in the end. It’s Days of Future past and every other X-MEN/Government story ever. So with that I think that when it comes back I’m going to save my time by not watching it anymore. I’ll still probably read about it just to keep up to date with whats going on, which is a time honored comic book nerd tradition on a book you ‘drop’ from your pull list.

CHARLES’ GRADE: D (Episodes 8-13)

PROS:….Hiro

CONS: NOT ENOUGH ROOM TO LIST

What I watched this week:Charles

With Christmas hitting this week, I crammed most of my movie watching into Friday. Spent most of the week running around here and there to different functions and get togethers. Why am I so busy during the holidays? Couldn’t answer that since I usually don’t do much other than working on a couple different ventures at once. Hopefully with the coming new year I’ll settle down and focus all my energy on one goal at a time.

RESIDENT EVIL:DEGENERATION

plot summary: Claire and Leon are once again thrust together to fight the spread of another virus outbreak, but this time everything is not what it seems to be.

• I finally got around to finishing this and I have to say it’s not really good. It’s not terrible either, it’s just kind of there. I admit I’m familiar with the games, but have never had any interest in the stories because I don’t like “survival horror” games. I understand whats great about them, I just choose not to participate. As far as the movie goes, I have to say the visuals are really impressive. That being said everyone has that plastic shiny skin thing going on. I don’t know if anybody remembers that episode of REAL SEX when they featured the real life sex dolls, but every female character looks like those sex dolls and it’s kinda creepy. I coulda used more zombies, I never cared for the Resident Evil style monsters that always take up the story towards the end of the games. If your a fan of the series you should like it alot, but from the outside looking in I dig why people love it, I just don’t share that love.

THE HOUSE BUNNY

Plot summary: Shelley, a playboy bunny, is kicked out of the mansion the day after her 27th birthday. Homeless and directionless she becomes the house mother to the worst sorority house at a college.

• I knew I shouldn’t have watched this movie from everything I heard, but I still did. Wow. It’s not good. It’s really not good. There were times I thought for a second I was watching one of the “movie genre spoof movie” movies Ana Farris broke out in. In spite of this movie I still think Collin Hanks(ORANGE COUNTY), EMMA STONE(SUPERBAD), and KAT DENNINGS(40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN) are really talented…too bad the movie wasn’t. I like this better when it was called RISE OF TAJ or Revenge of the nerds.

ROLE MODELS

Plot Summary: After Danny(Paul Rudd) freaks out and gets co-worker/unofficial best friend, Wheeler(Sean William Scott), and himself in trouble the two have to mentor two kids who have their own problems to deal with.

• This movie was funny as hell. I went into it not really expecting anything, but it surprised me how much I liked it. To be fair it is pretty paint by the numbers, but the improv nature of the actors in the movie save it. This movie has a kind of ‘who’s who’ of improv comedians and it makes the movie great.

HAMLET 2

PLOT SUMMARY:Dana Marschz’s (Steve Coogan) unsuccessful acting career and life help to spawn the creation of a sequel to one of the greatest works in theater history, which is then made into a school play.

• This movie was so funny I was caught off guard. I kinda “knew” I was going to enjoy it, but I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did. I’m a huge fan of Steve Coogan, from his British tv shows but wish he’d do more movies and this is a prime example of why. So good.

Judge Puts Watchmen release in Serious trouble

A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox owns the distribution rights to “Watchmen,” representing a setback for Warner Bros.’ plans to release the pic in March.

“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” the ruling said.

Judge Gary Allen Feess issued the surprise ruling Wednesday — a week after setting a Jan. 20 trial date for Fox’s suit — and indicated he would issue a more detailed ruling soon. Warner spokesman Scott Rowe declined to comment.

Warner Bros. has not backed off a release date of March 6 for “Watchmen,” directed by Zack Snyder and starring Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley.

Fox filed the suit in February, contending it retains distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

The suit asserts that producer Lawrence Gordon’s option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in “Watchmen” was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under a 1994 turnaround agreement. Warner Bros. has denied Fox’s assertions and contended Fox doesn’t hold the copyright.

Fox originally acquired the rights to “Watchmen” in the late 1980s and spent more than $1 million developing the project, which later went to Universal and then Paramount before landing at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.

-VARIETY.COM

my two cents:

This is insane. Fox has never done anything substancial in way of actually making a Watchmen movie, until Universial showed them it could be made. Do you mean to tell me that nobody at Warner Brothers, which is a part of the parent company for the publisher that OWNS Watchmen, checked to see if this was cool? I know somebody over at Fox knew they were making it and probably didn’t care until they saw the first trailer(which is right around the time Fox made this law suit. This is one of the cases where I hate the studio system.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

Just wanted to take the time and say happy birthday mom. I love you in my own strange way. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have gotten to meet the Popples live, Ronald McDonald, The Simpsons, seen my first PG-13 movie by myself(COOL WORLD) or any of the awesome stuff you’ve given me the chance to do or experience. Although you may not always “get me” you always tell me the truth, as you see it. Happy birthday Heffer…lol

Thundercats Movie Trailer = AWESOME

now while it may pain me to try and watch the old Thundercats episodes now, I’d gladly pay money to see this “movie”…epic.

FRIDAY THE 13TH remake trailer

Ohhh this movie looks so bad ass. I can’t wait to see it, considering I liked the directors Texas Chainshaw remake a lot I’m down.

Charles’ Pick Of The Week: Comics for 12/17/08

This came down to the wire. I thought I had the pick locked between two books and then a third book knocked a front runner off. Really good week of books, but only a few actually “meant” something of sorts. The one I pick might not be a bunch of people’s favorites but it’s taking a character I’ve been reading for along time and changed them in my eyes.

PICK OF THE WEEK

ROBIN #181

This was the issue that reminded me of why I’m a fan of the comic format and DC Comics as a whole. DC Comics is about legacy and they do a strange thing for comics, they let characters age and evolve over time. Tim Drake is my Robin, I grew up with him as Robin and reading Dick Grayson as Nightwing. I’ve been reading Robin since the first mini series and while I’ve left the book a few times I’ve always come back. Now the big reveal last issue of who Red Robin was didn’t really resonate with me because I forgot all about Ulysses but the reveal of Anarchy did peak my interest. I never read the Anarchy books but I always remember seeing the ads in my DC books back in the day. This is, what seems to be, the 2nd big crescendo to this storyline. Batman’s gone and Robin’s all by himself dealing with the huge gang fighting among countless other things. Having to deal with this stress and responsibilty is making Tim cold. More than a few times Tim comes off as Bruce like, it’s a little unnerving, if you know the character at all. Tim Drake has to have had it the worst he’s lost his dad to Captain Boomerang, his best friend (SUPERBOY) dies, his other best friend (IMPULSE) dies, a ex girlfriend he thought dead is back and betrayed him on orders from Batman. The kid has got it rough. Over time I’ve always said that in my mind Dick will always be Nightwing and that Tim Drake would be Batman, with this issue I’d be fine if he just goes with RED ROBIN because it fits his new attitude. God I love comics.

CHARLES’ GRADE: A

P.O.W Runner Up

SPIDER-MAN:NOIR #1

Now this is more like it. After the really mundane and totally uninteresting X-MEN:NOIR, we get Spider-Man:Noir. I took some flack from a reader who seemed to really dig X-Men for some reason and that’s okay it was a good concept messed up to me. Well with Spider-Man:Noir I’ve found what I was looking for. This takes the usual Noir set up and takes the characters and makes them familiar but slightly different. I loved the revelation at the end, because it’s different in a good way. I loved the violence and the art did wonders for it. Now while I didn’t like the art of in X-Men:Noir because character looked strangely, this art fit and it was impossible to not know who characters were. Man this one came out of nowhere for me, I thought Supergirl was a lock for runner up. If Robin hadn’t come out this would have been P.O.W.

REST OF THE PILE

PUNISHER:WAR-ZONE #2

• Just found out this book is weekly until it’s finished. Man all I’m gonna be saying towards the end is this is awesome, yep. Well I am kinda already over the “returns” of Ma Gunnci it’s already beginning to urk me, hopefully next issue we’ll finally get over this need to keep having her “revealed”

X-MEN:LEGACY #219

• Easily my favorite X-Men book. This one was pretty much just a sit down between Xavier and Juggernaut and it was awesome. I have to admit I prefer Juggernaut as a reformed hero, like in Excalibur or my old favorite THE ALL NEW EXILES(man I loved that book before he left). Other than that we get a really cool scene of Xavier being a bad ass.

X:MEN-KINGBREAKER #1

• I’m just going to say it, I hate the X-Men in space(usually) and I hate Vulcan(all the time). Well this is a bit of a prelude to WAR OF THE KINGS between Vulcan and Black Bolt. I’m not looking forward to it at all, but I have loved the Marvel Space books since they started doing their own events. So hopefully this one will feature the Guardians of the Galaxy so I have a reason to read it. It was cool to see Havok being like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.

X-FACTOR #38

• I used to love this book, up until the X-Men events started to bleed over. I liked that it was a noir style book with some old favorite of mine. It’s since gotten away from the X events but I still don’t enjoy it anymore. I don’t know if it because the art’s been pretty lackluster since the series regular artist took off but something’s missing. I’m hoping that they’ll get a good artist to take over but I’m not holding my breath.

SUPERGIRL #36

• By now I must sound like a broken record: “New Krypton is awesome”. Well it is. This was the P.O.W runner up until I read Spider-Man:Noir. This issue deals with the death of Supergirl’s dad and how the stakes have once again been raised. I loved the fact that Kara’s mom is so bull headed and intent on starting a war. It does kind of boggle my mind that someone could come to another planet and refuse to play by the rules of that world, but it makes for a good story. The mystery of who SUPERWOMAN is will likely be a big thing going forward and I’m excited to find out who it is and how she relates to the whole SUPERMAN mythos.

UNCANNY X-MEN #505

• I’m noticing a pattern with Matt Fraction on this book, the X-Men really don’t do anything. It feels like they’ve just been sitting around arguing for the last three issues. It doesn’t always make for the most interesting X-Men story but it is different. I also wish we could scale down the amount of characters because it feels like this should be called X-MEN:Family because they try to include so many characters, that’s why there are other X books out there. You can’t go wrong with Dodson art. I do have a question because I’m confused about White Queen and Dark Reign. After reading Dark Reign #1 I guess the meeting she had with Osborn was in her head, but then she seems to be talking about it like it hasn’t happened yet. That storyline will be continued throughout Dark Reign and the upcoming UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL but I’d have liked it to be alittle clearer. I did enjoy her finally questioning Scott on the dealings of X-FORCE. I don’t like the X-FORCE book but I coulda sworn Angel was back to the Archangel wings but I wouldn’t really know. Beast’s excursions are starting to get stranger and stranger all the time, I just hope this new search for a cure to the “No more Mutants” is more interesting than the back up story throughout the Messiah Complex event.

TERRA #4 OF 4

• I’ve really enjoyed this mini, but it kinda ended flatly. The fight at the end was really quick and kinda anti-climatic. I did like Terra hanging out with Powergirl, which was actually funny. I wish Amanda Conner was doing more work, but I’ll take what I can get.

AVENGERS:THE INIATIVE #19

• This book really should end, I’ve been holding on because I liked the first few arcs but it’s just not a very good book. I really don’t like the art and am a little worried about how well I’m going to like the art for the new Nick Fury book because the artist from the beginning of the book is going to be on it. The new guy who’s been doing art since the World War Hulk stuff is not my cup of tea at all. This book is filled with D Listers and it’s beginning to reek of it.

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #14

• Why are these two fighting? I couldn’t tell ya. This issue was pretty dumb, I was kinda digging the idea of Batgirl taking over and starting her own Outsiders team but they halt that to have NIGHTWING and her fight…good idea. I don’t think the art on this book will ever do it for me, I miss the artist from the beginning of the series. Totally forgettable.

DARK REIGN: NEW NATION

• This is just a preview book of a few new books coming out of Dark Reign. After reading it I only plan on keeping up with two maybe three. For sure I’m aboard the Nick Fury:Howling Commandos book. I knew I was going to read it once they had Nick Fury standing in front of Steve Rogers grave. Then we have the Clint Barton(Hawkeye/Ronin) and Mockingbird book. Now while I’ll never like Mockingbird as much as Black Canary I’m going to read it because I love Hawkeye/Ronin. The one I’m not sure about is the Agents of Atlas book. The sneak peek was interesting but I don’t know how long I can dig those characters because they look so antiquated that I’m not sure I’ll relate to them. Now the other books featured, War Machine and SKC, I have no desire in what so ever. The War Machine art actually looks worse than the Portacio art on the IRON MAN reboot book out of Onslaught. The Skrull Kill Crew are just not my cup of tea, I just want to forget the Skrulls ever existed.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #20

• I really liked this issue, not because of the Janet Pym stuff because I never liked the Wasp. I always thought she was a waste of a Avengers Roster slot. I really liked it because of Hank Pym reading Tony Stark the riot act. Him blaming him for Cap’s and Janets death was awesome. Now I can like Tony again because he’s finally getting what he deserves for turning on his friends.

GHOST RIDER #30

• I’m loving Jason Aaron on this book, he’s made me like Ghost Rider again. The art is great and the dialogue is actually funny. Such a good read.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #8

• And with this I’m back. Now I can root for a former favorite of mine, Iron Man. I really like the idea that he has the database of every heroes identity in his head to keep it away from Norman Osborn and the fact that he’s now a wanted man. I’ve come to enjoy Scott Larocca’s new art style but when he gives the characters the face of actors and actresses it takes me out of the book. I don’t like Nicole Kidman so when I see Pepper Pots looking like her it makes me picture Nicole Kidman playing her part and I kinda cringe, the same goes for Maria Hill when she looks like Jessica Alba I start to view it as a movie and she’s not the best actress. It does feel good to be back home.

MILK review

MILK

MILK is a bio pic about the first openly gay elected official, HARVEY MILK. The film follows him from New York to The Castro in San Fransico. The movie builds up to his death by the hands of a former collegue. I’m not known as the biggest fan of Gus Van Sant overall, so when this movie was announced I kinda brushed it off. But soon I found myself wanting to see it, mostly for Sean Penn. Well watching this movie I found myself forgetting that I was watching Sean Penn, because I had gotten so into the story that his “persona” disappeared.

Gus Van Sant

The direction in this movie seems to be so handsoff, by way of just letting the actors feel a scene out. I would love to see some production diaries on how this film was made, it’s just so effortless. Van Sant usually has a lot of empty “space” in his movies where no one is saying anything and there is no sound, but it’s not as rampant throughout this movie. Van Sant covers up his usual “loud silence” by inserting news reel which could take you out of the movie, but it’s done in a way to complement the movie. I’m a 80’s kid, but when I think of the 70’s I instantly think of this films color scheme. It’s similar to what David Fincher did with ZODIAC, in that everything has a muted almost washed out look. To get back to the acting I have to say that everyone did a really good job, but I wasn’t blown away by some. Emile Hirsh’s character, Cleve Jones, was pretty basic but he was alright. I find it funny that my perceived, and that’s all I’ve gotten from interviews, persona for James Franco always comes through no matter what the part. I enjoy his work, not Flyboys of course, but I do enjoy his work. With Josh Brolin, I thinks he’s a great actor and at times he was really excellent in this, but he really didn’t get a chance to do a lot before the end. It’s hard to come up with new “insights” into this film because it’s been reviewed by movie critics who are a million times better than me. All I can say is, I was slightly moved by this movie. I knew I believed in basic human rights and the idea that someone would want to deny people the same rights as everyone else boggles my mind, but I guess what my parents tried to do worked. They wanted me to grow up to be someone who didn’t judge people by anything other than their character.

CHARLES’ GRADE: A

PROS: A MOVING FILM, THE DIRECTION, THE ESSENTIAL 70′S COLOR SCHEME

CONS:SOME CHARACTERS WERE A LITTLE MUCH AT TIMES SOME CHARACTERS DIDN’T GET ENOUGH SCREEN TIME TO DO ANYTHING SPECIAL

What I watched this week:Charles

Another week has passed and while I’ve been oddly busy(sorry Alex hopefully I’ll get a chance to call you back, I’m swamped) I still managed to watch some stuff while shrugging off sleep.

PALE COCOON

PLOT SUMMARY: It has been many years since a group of humans retreated to an artificial colony above the planet surface. The colorful world that used to exist was ruined by human foolishness, making it uninhabitable. Much of recorded history before the move has been forgotten, despite the numerous advances in technology. The last remaining information lies in a vast archive of data, much of it in corrupted formats. Determined to recover this precious information, the “Archive Excavation Department” works specifically to restore as much of it as possible. Long ago, the Department used to be excited and full of energy. Now, people know that knowledge of the lost past can bring only sadness.

Ura, a particularly motivated member of the department, works long hours to recover history. Riko has lost her passion and desire to know. Then one day, Ura comes upon a record that once decoded, completely changes the way he sees his world.

-WIKIPEDIA

• Oh boy…I watched this because it was just a 20 minute OAV and at the end I was sorry I made the effort. I’m starting to think that since I watched 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND and loved it so much I’ve thrown my anime karma off. Every new anime I’ve picked since that I’ve freaking hated. This was soooo boring and ultimateLy it makes absolutely no sense. Wow…just awful.

MY NAME IS BRUCE

PLOT SUMMARY: My Name is Bruce is the heroic struggle of a small mining town (Gold Lick, Oregon) to rid itself of a vengeful monster. Guan-di (Jamie Peck), the Chinese god of war and protector of the dead, has been unleashed by cemetery desecrating teenagers to protect the graves of Chinese miners lost in a deadly cave-in of yesteryear. Against his better judgment (and the angry citizens of Gold Lick), Bruce looks defeat Guan-Di, save Jeff, and snag his hot mother. In the climactic, mano-a-monster, Bruce tries to rise above the miserable, off-screen schmuck that he is and become a hero in real life.

-Imdb.com(mostly)

• Everyday I’m reminded that sometimes you can’t go home again. I still love Army of Darkness, more so than the first two evil deads but I’m not a fan of the cheesy Bruce Campbell stuff anymore. I love him on Burn Notice and never want him to leave that show, but when he goes to the well again and does the comedic it doesn’t do anything for me. He’s funny on Burn Notice, but it’s not in that Bruce Campbell in a cheesy horror movie way. I was impressed that he directed this movie, but at the end of the day I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL

PLOT SUMMARY:Daniel Craig stars as Joe, a self-destructive English actor living in California and trapped in a mundane cycle of excess. News of the death of a childhood friend, and the sudden collapse of his movie career, pushes Joe over the edge, and he attempts suicide by throwing himself into the ocean. Drifting in the Pacific, we are taken back to Joe’s teenage years in a sleepy English hamlet. We learn of Joe’s relationship with Evelyn, a relationship which ended in tragedy and forced him to flee home for a new life.

-WIKIPEDIA

• I liked this but was kinda underwhelmed by it. I thought the bits with Daniel Craig were great and really interesting, but when you go back in time to him as a teen it kinda drags. I would have liked to see what his childhood friend Boots was like as an adult but we don’t get to because Joe didn’t get to know him as an adult. On some level I could relate to this movie, but I woulda liked it to have been more of the rich material in the moment and less about the  flacid flashback.